Show People
About Show People
Peggy Pepper arrives from Georgia with her father, set on being a dramatic star. In a studio commissary she meets Billy Boone, who sends her to his set. Her first entrance gets a face full of seltzer: she is in a cheap comedy, not a tragedy. The comedy hits, and High Arts signs her. She renames herself Patricia Pepoire, drops Billy for the actor André Telfair, and ignores telegrams saying the dramas are failing. On the day she is to marry André, Billy sprays her again. She hits André with a pie, calls off the wedding, and ends up kissing Billy in a war picture King Vidor is directing.
Cast & crew
More about Show People
King Vidor directed. Laurence Stallings wrote it. Irving Thalberg and Vidor produced for MGM. John Arnold photographed it. Hugh Wynn edited. Wikipedia gives a U.S. release of November 20, 1928, and 79 minutes. There is no spoken dialogue. Movietone supplied a score and effects, on disc and on film.
Themes
Background
It opened the year after The Jazz Singer. The film still has no dialogue, only a synchronized score and effects.
Making
The High Arts contract and the Comet comedies split the plot between the two kinds of picture Davies herself had been pushed toward.
Look
John Arnold photographed the studio scenes in Los Angeles, including Davies's pass as herself.
Music
William Axt's Movietone score and effects play under the picture. There is no dialogue. Carl Davis replaced that score for a 1980s reissue.
Preservation
Selected for the National Film Registry in 2003. Warner Archive has released it as a burn-on-demand DVD.
Notes
- Marion Davies plays Peggy. William Haines plays Billy Boone.
- Davies also walks through as herself, and Peggy, in character, is unimpressed. Vidor appears as himself, directing the war picture at the end.
- Charlie Chaplin is in two shots. William S. Hart, Douglas Fairbanks, and John Gilbert are among the banquet and studio faces.
- The budget reported on the film's Wikipedia page is $431,000.
- The National Film Registry added it in 2003. Warner Archive has issued it on demand.
Scenes
- Peggy's first entrance ends in a spray of seltzer.
- She throws the pie at André on her wedding day.
- She and Billy kiss in Vidor's war picture because the script says to.
Also available
- Warner Archive Collection DVD
